Katie Ward
Staff Writer
This week, YouTube star Sam Pepper groped women as a “prank” and filmed their reactions, posting them to his channel. Since then, the Internet has reacted dramatically and negatively, and the video has been banned from the website. After receiving the negative attention, Pepper posted another video of a woman doing the same thing, and an earnest response video claiming that both videos were part of a social experiment.
Do you believe that dramatic public pranks such as this one are harmless and comedic, or have they gone too far? Why do you think so?
Miles Karstein
freshman undeclared major
“These people are just abusing their privilege. They think that they’re capable of doing whatever they want, you know I saw a video the other day of this, of course, white male walking up to a black guy and saying ‘Hey, do you want to see my balls?’ and then the black guy punched him in the face, rightfully so! Because white males in public, in America, are just dumb and they think they can get away with anything and they can’t. Labeling that as a social experiment is a thinly veiled disguise of what it actually is, which is bullshit.”
Johanna Loacker
sophomore biology major
“I feel like these viral videos have gone a little too far, because people see them and they set an example of what people should do with this double standard between genders. I think this is a good way for that to be brought to light, about how men and women are treated differently in these situations, but it also is staying for people to go up and harass others in public sexually.”
Royce Anies
junior biology major
“Although these pranks seem comedic at first, I think one of the major things that people don’t understand is that they have an underlying message most of the time, but there’s usually a lack of understanding of what the damages [of the pranks may be]. I feel like this lack of understanding is what makes them dangerous.”
